1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game of chance and skill, specifically to a card game which is particularly suitable for use in casinos and which can be played either as a computer video game or as a table game. In particular, the invention relates to a card game in which a wild card is provided in the play of the game.
2. Background of the Art
Wagering games played in casino establishments have achieved a very high level of public acceptance. Particularly in the United States, there are now thousands of casinos in many different locations, and in certain jurisdictions, private businesses may have video gaming equipment. The rise in gaming has been in large part because of the entertainment value of gaming, the variety of games available to provide interest to the player beyond the gaming aspects of play itself, and greater acceptance of gaming by the public. It is generally recognized that successful games should: (1) be entertaining for the players, (2) attract the attention of and visual interest of players, (3) stimulate rapid numbers of wagers during predetermined time periods; (4) provide reasonable and understandable odds to the player, (5) provide unvarying overall odds in favor of the casino; (6) be sufficiently simple to allow rapid acceptance of the game with a short learning curve, and (7) be easily monitored by observers and any dealer to avoid errors and cheating. Both casino table games and video games have achieved high levels of success with these parameters kept in mind during their design.
There are a wide variety of poker games available to players in private games, club games, casino table games and video gaming equipment. In casino video gaming equipment, the easiest format to work with comprises variants of five-card draw poker. This game is played in a video gaming format with many variations, for example, by having five cards dealt to a player. The player selects his best cards (e.g., the cards most likely to provide a highly ranked hand when the player discards and draws replacement cards), discards unneeded cards, and then draws replacement cards. The objective in these video games is generally to achieve the best possible hand, according to conventional poker hand rankings, with hands of various ranks being awarded payouts that are multiples (usually with limits from about 1:1 to about 4000:1) of the wager. The game has such a readily appreciated ease of understanding and play that the format has been highly successful. Common variants of this game include games where deuces within the playing deck are wild, jokers added to the playing deck are wild, multiple mixed decks are used for the dealing of hands, extra bonuses are provided for unique hands, and the like. These variations in the rules are still readily understood and add variety to the basic pure game of five card draw.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,022 to Michael Wood, 1988, discloses a poker game which can be played on a computer video output screen gaming machine or as a table game. At the start of the game, the player makes a first wager and receives five cards, which constitutes a first hand. As is known to those skilled in the art, five-card poker hands are ranked, for competitive purposes, according to the following order from lowest to highest: (1) High Card in Hand; (2) One Pair; (3) Two Pair; (4) Three of a Kind; (5) Straight; (6) Flush; (7) Full House; (8) Four of a Kind; (9) Straight Flush; (10) Royal Flush; (11) Five of a Kind (which is possible only if a joker is used). Then each player may discard up to five cards and receive five new cards to form a second hand. The player loses the first wager if the second hand (or the first hand when no cards are discarded) does not have a pair. The player receives the wager back if the hand has a pair. The player receives a payout which exceeds the first wager in accordance with the posted odds if the hand is of higher order than a pair. The player is also entitled to make a second wager and to receive a sixth card. A five-card third hand having the highest possible ranking is then formed by combining the newly dealt card and any four of the five cards in the second hand. If the third hand is ranked lower than a straight and is of lower order than the second hand, the player loses the second wager. However, if the third hand has a ranking of a straight or greater and is of higher order than the second hand, the player wins an amount which depends on the second wager and the posted odds.
Although the Wood's game allows the player an additional possibility of winning by providing the sixth card, the payout odds must be diminished proportionally, thus decreasing the generated level of excitement. Moreover, the thrill of the game is also reduced because the sixth card rarely produces a dramatic improvement in the ranking of the player's hand. Furthermore, the rules of the game are fairly complex, involving three different hands and sometimes enigmatic criteria for receiving the sixth card (the video-game version). Several wild-card versions of Wood's game have been suitable for casinos. In these, a wild card may possess any value specified by the player. For example, when deuces are wild, they can be counted as kings, aces, or have any other value and can fill in straights or flushes. Other variations of the game exist, for instance with jokers or eights wild. However, when wild cards are used, the game lacks the exciting element of surprise since the wild cards are declared to the player at the start of the game. Moreover, the game is rendered less attractive because the player always retains the wild cards and hence a lower pay table must be utilized. Thus, the player normally wins only when his or her hand ranking is three of a kind or higher.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,065 describes a poker game comprising a player making a wager and then being dealt a hand of five cards in a specific card location, with the cards being viewed by the player (e.g., face-up). The player is also dealt a single card from the same deck, this card being dealt face-down. The player may attempt to improve the five card hand by utilizing standard five card draw steps. After the player has acted on the five card hand, the sixth card is turned face-up, and all the cards in the player's hand which have the same face value as the turned card are designated as a wild card. The method of playing the game of chance is described as utilizing a maximum set with a finite plurality of scorable units, each having a fixed value, wherein the scorable units can be assembled, according to predetermined rules, into small sets having different rankings, said method comprising the steps of:
a player placing a wager; the player receiving an original set of A scorable units randomly chosen from the finite plurality of scorable units, where A is an integer, the original set having a ranking known to the player, thereby reducing the maximum set by the number of scorable units in said original sets. The player receives a solitary scorable unit randomly chosen from the finite plurality of scorable units remaining, the solitary scorable unit having a value concealed from the player, thereby reducing the maximum set by one additional unit. The player has a chance to improve the ranking of the original set by discarding up to A scorable units from the original set and replacing them with an equal number of scorable units randomly chosen from the remaining finite plurality of scorable units, thus forming a modified original set. The value of the solitary scorable unit is revealed to said player. All scorable units of the modified original set which have the same value as the solitary scorable unit are assigned replacement arbitrary values which maximally improve the ranking of the modified original set. The modified original set is evaluated in accordance with predefined criteria to determine whether the player has won or lost the wager. Thus the play of the game provides a wild card from within the set of symbols used in the play of the game.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,818 describes a multideck poker game that is able to provide unique hands without the use of wild cards. A first hand is dealt from a first deck of cards. The player may select an additional card or cards to be dealt into his playing hand from an additional deck of cards. The player may discard cards, with replacement cards coming from the original decks from which the discards were dealt. In this manner, a hand of six or more cards may be created that has the possibility of poker hands unavailable from a single deck (e.g., a seven card royal flush).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,140 describes a video format gaming apparatus where a player makes a wager to participate in the game and the player is dealt two distinct hands at the beginning of the game. Each hand is dealt from its own separate complete deck of cards. The player selects one of the hands to play and the unselected hand is voided or removed from use. The player plays out the selected hand according to the conventional manner of play of the hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,809 describes a method of playing a card game wherein multiple decks of playing cards are used in a unique format which results in hands being possible that were not previously available. In the play of the game, such as five card draw poker, each card position in a player's hand is dealt from a distinct deck. This enables the possibility of unique hands such as five aces of spades, without the need for using wild cards. In addition to the use of standard decks of cards, this method contemplates the use of decks which have been modified slightly, such as by the addition of two jokers to each deck. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,992 enables the possibility of unique types of hands by shuffling, for example, the same number of decks together as there are cards in a player's hand (e.g., five decks would be shuffled together where the game is five card stud). This allows similar types of hands as U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,809.
These games provide a useful variety of games to be played in various casino or private formats, but there is always a desire for different games with unique playing features to be available.